However, scholars have determined that Herod the Great died in the year corresponding to 4 BC. Therefore, if the Gospel references to Herod are correct, Dionysius made a slight error.

According to many biblical scholars, the Gospel the writers employed long-established "literary forms."

For example, it is very likely that the murder of the innocents in the Gospel of Matthew parallels the murder of the new-born Hebrew children in Exodus--and both may be based on "an old Near Eastern myth" (see end of message) that was also reflected in ancient secular literature.

According to Livy, ["The History of Early Rome" trans. by Aubrey de Selincourt, The Heritage Press (1972) pp. 8-9]Romulus and Remus were condemned to be drowned in the Tiber by Amulius, who had usurped the throne of Alba Longa.

According to Herodotus {"The Histories" trans. by Robin Waterfield, Oxford Univ. Press (1998) Book I [108] to [122]}, Astyages, king of the Medes, ordered his infant grandson Cyrus the Great to be killed by Harpagus.

The parallels among these infancy narratives are incredibly striking. On Page 8 of the Introduction to Livy: The Early History of Rome, Books I-V (Penguin Classics) (Bks. 1-5) , Robert Ogilvie states that the legend of Romulus and Remus is "an adaptation of an old Near Eastern myth, found in Greece in the legend of Neleus and Pelias, sons of the god Poseidon, exposed on the river Enipeus and suckled by a bitch and a mare."